Salisbury city employees: We need raises

Rising cost of living demands salary increases

May 9, 2013

Written by

Staff Writer

SALISBURY — Squeezed by years of stagnant wages and a rising cost of living, many of the city government’s employees are badly in need of a raise and extra help on the job, their representatives said Thursday.

One after another, staff members spoke on behalf of themselves and their department colleagues at a City Council budget session. Each acknowledged that times are tough for all, including taxpayers.

But the city can’t keep delaying salary bumps and hiring new workers, they said.

“We feel we’re not only doing more, the cost of living has gone up — the cost of gas, food, retirement, insurance,” said Trish Warrington, the office manager for the city’s neighborhood services department. “We are happy to have a job, but we feel it’s just time to give the employees some money.”

To be sure, their public-sector concerns echoed those on the private side. But the discussion shed a remarkable amount of light on the workings and mood inside a city government whose leader, Mayor Jim Ireton, rarely allows rank-and-file employees to speak publicly.

For example, there were “hard feelings” inside the fire department after the City Council approved nearly $500,000 in raises last year for the police, firefighter Aaron Colegrove said. Many officers received at least a 10 percent hike in their paychecks, he noted.

“Our call volume just like theirs goes up every year. The morale in the department has been low for multiple years now. We have to look out for the employees that are sworn in to protect the public safety,” he said.

The fire department’s budget, as submitted by Fire Chief Rick Hoppes, doesn’t ask for additional employees or pay because city budgeting practices discourage such practices, he said.

Since the Great Recession began, City Administrator John Pick later confirmed, department heads have been advised against seeking new hires and to make cuts where possible. This year, all were asked to slash 2 percent from their operating budgets.

Colegrove also called on the council to turn a dozen firefighters whose costs are being covered for two years by a federal grant into permanent employees after the money runs out. The $750,000 annual hit would be “a huge, huge expenditure” but worth it in the long run, he said.

The extra staff members have enabled the department to once again man station No. 2 with paid firefighters in addition to volunteers. And it has improved response times to emergencies, Colegrove added, though he was unable to immediately quantify the difference.

Council President Jake Day noted that the mayor’s budget request includes a 2 percent increase for all employees except police.

He said the council will review the matter when a consultant’s $44,000 pay and classification is ready to review.

Pick said preliminary results of the Evergreen Solutions study are trickling in, and the council should see the full results before the budget is required to be finished in June.